Golden Gardens...

is my new favorite area beach. The sand is great, it is a big beach (wide and long) and a nice shallow entry. The bathrooms are decent, and the playground is good enough as well. There were birds to chase, a small stream to play in, and not too many other people.

We went at low tide in mid July with some friends to check out the tidepools. We didn't find much, lots of crabs mostly, but we had a great time. I'm hoping for maybe one more trip here before the good weather ends for the year.

S and G both love to sit in the sand, pile it on their legs, roll it in, etc.

G with the crab shell our friend found. I think she would have brought this dead crab home, had I let her.

This beach was so long, and the water cold and calm enough that I could let the kids go down to the water's edge alone. They filled bucket after bucket of water, to make "wet sand."
S found this pond when we first arrived, and rather than tidepool hunting, he chased birds and splashed. By the time we left, the tide had come in enough that this wasn't a separate pond anymore.